
Death of a Salesman
Willie Lowman is a character that most anyone can identify with. He has
two sides to his life; On one side he creates an image of being
successful, well liked, and bold. On the other side he feels old,
unsuccessful, defeated and disliked. He maintains the successful image
to comfort his wife and friends. This veil of success becomes thinner
and thinner until he lingers between fantasy and reality of the cruel
world, often changing back and forth in the course of a conversation.
The core of Willie^s slow painful demise into nothingness is based upon
his beliefs. Willie thinks that success is not what you know, but who
he knows and how well he is liked. These beliefs he instills in his
sons, who find themselves adrift and meaningless just like their
father. In addition Willie sees the world changing, and his own
inability to change with it, will seal his fate. He misses the open
land and the smell of flowers in the summer, the pollution and high
rise apartments add to Wil! lies dismal existence. An example of
Willies shift from fantasy to reality is during his conversation with
his wife about the Chevy. He thinks the car is fantastic, the best ever
built. Later he and his wife discuss some bills that were paid, and
when told about the bill to get the Chevy^s carburetor fixed, he says
that they ought to prohibit the manufacture of the car.
Willie Lowman is finding himself less and less capable. He dreams of
making it big and has visions of Uncle Ben who gives him advice on how
to get rich, but never the kind of advice Willie wants to hear. Willie
is concerned about his image. He is a great showman who can brag and
flaunt like the best of them, and as witness to the hard truth of his
failure he continues to weave fairy tales and live in fantasy. Willie
wants his sons to be better off and more successful than him, but he
has already corrupted them, and they too claim achievements well beyond
reality. Biff comes to the reality of his position in life in the
opening of the play. He knows he is not cut out for the business world.
Biff prefers to move back to Texas and work on a farm. Although he
realizes working on the farm won^t make him successful, he knows that
it^s his calling in life. Happy who is fairly stable and comfortable in
his work, prefers to continue with the charade, and the deception so as
long as it! makes life easier for him. Although his sons will not be
successful, I think Willie Lowman did the best he could. Willie is not
to blame for his sons disappointments, although he has delayed their
success by giving them false ideas about success.
The family situation is that of the standard dysfunctional family. The
mother is upset by her sons because they have no respect for Willie and
show no concern for his decline. Willie loves his wife, but often
mistreats her, cuts he off in mid conversation and belittles her. Biff
begins to hate his father because of the constant pressure to succeed,
along with his fathers adultery and abuse of his mother. However Biff
still cares very deeply for his father deep down inside. Willie^s
favorite son is Biff; however Biff is also a continual source of
disappointment for his father because of his inability to assert
himself in the business world. Happy is most like his father in the way
that he much prefers fantasy over reality. Happy is willing to continue
with pretending everything is all right so as long as it makes life
easier. The conflict is Willie versus nature. Nature being the
environment and Willies inability to change and conform to it^s dynamic
and changing nature. The characters in this play are easily understood
because of their similarity to most people who find themselves washed
up in this game called life. People watching the play can easily
identify with these characters who represent the average working class
family. Nobody wins in the end because it^s real life. The father kills
himself, hoping that the insurance money will send his family on their
way to success; and in actuality the insurance money from his death
will heal no wounds, or right any wrongs.
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